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Treating the trafficked

My story in Sunday’s newspaper explains a new 12-bed unit for post-adjudication juvenile girls in Bexar County, and while only about half of the girls who will move into it soon are victims of sex trafficking, Chief Probation Officer David Reilly says it will be the primary place for those victims.

But the Mission Road Center isn’t the only thing county officials — mostly elected ones — are doing to address the problem of sex trafficking.

Judge Laura Parker of the 386th District Court already runs a court for juveniles with drug problems and one for youth offenders with mental health issues. In June, Parker plans to open a “Girls Court,” structured similarly to her other specialty courts, she said. The teenagers whose cases will go to Parker’s court are victims of domestic sex trafficking who also have a criminal charge.

“They run away or have a drug offense, or some other offense, and while we’re working with them, either they tell us or we find out that they’ve also been a victim of some sort of sexual exploitation,” she said.

Whenever the girls are identified as trafficking victims, no matter in which part of the process it occurs, they’ll be redirected to the specialty court. Staff, including the probation officer and counselors, will meet routinely to make sure everyone’s up-to-speed, and the girls in Parker’s court will be required to meet with her every other week.

“There’s something about being held accountable to your judge in a more frequent way that’s really been able to keep them on track,” she said. “It’s a delicate balance, for sure, you want to hold people accountable for bad behavior but understand they may not have arrived at that conclusion on their own.”

The court is somewhat unique, but formed with Parker’s concepts, along with ideas from a similar court in Houston and a pre-adjudication program in Dallas. And if Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, has her way, Bexar won’t be the only one to start a court for trafficked girls in the near future. Her bill, SB 92, would ease the process of starting a Girls Court, she said, to address the needs of offenders who are victims of trafficking.

“What we need is not just incarceration,” Van de Putte said. “That is a criminal approach to folks who may have been victims themselves. Health care, educational needs and the wraparound services are better addressed by a specialized court who can hold that team accountable.”

She said in some cases, the girls’ records could also be sealed.

“If you’ve been human trafficked, but you’ve got a prostitution charge, then even if you’re able to be rescued, it’s still on your sheet,” she said. “Yes, hold them accountable for their actions, but give them a chance to turn their lives around.”

She added that she’s been praised by peers, both inside and outside of Texas, for the county’s multidisciplinary, multi-jurisdictional approaches to addressing the needs of the county’s troubled teens. Specifically, she mentioned a screening tool used by the Juvenile Probation Department. “What they’re uncovering is a lot of kids on probation have been sold for sex,” Van de Putte said. “They’ve been forced to do things. So this picks up where these kids have been traumatized.”

Already, Parker said there are eight girls identified for the new court. Yes, she said, it’s a small amount of teens and they won’t necessarily be thankful for the county’s intervention.

“This is a chance to really, hopefully, get some girls on the right track,” Parker said.